CRUEL FACE OF SRI LANKAN ESTABLISHMENT EXPOSED WITH RELEASE OF BRUTAL TROPHY PHOTOS OF 12 YEAR OLD CHILD’S EXECUTION
( February 22, 2013,New York, Sri Lanka Guardian) Britain’s Channel 4 and the international media outlets have recently published reports and pictures of the execution style assassination of 12-year old Balachandran Pirabaharan. These recently published accounts add to the mounting evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed against the Tamil people in the Vanni region in the island of Sri Lanka during and after the war in 2009.
The death of Balachandran Pirabaharan by the Sri Lankan armed forces candidly exposes the brutal events occurring at the end of the war. This conduct, which constitutes war crimes and violations of international law, must be investigated by a credible, independent international Commission of Inquiry to determine the facts behind these horrendous acts. Civilized governments do not execute innocent children in cold blood and then display trophy photos of the murder. The recently surfaced picture of the young boy’s innocent face raises the question: how can a human pull the trigger on a 12 year old child? The new pictures demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Balachandran Pirabaharan was not killed in crossfire as the Government of Sri Lanka alleges
The international community must not view the fate of Balachandran Pirabaharan as an isolated incident. In reality, thousands of Tamil children were murdered in 2009 and more thousands are today enduring a servile existence under the same military that killed their relatives and friends in the Tamil areas. Up to one hundred and fifty thousand Tamil civilians have met their death during that period at the hands of the forces of the state, comprising almost exclusively by the Sinhalese. Anti-Tamil racism manifested by the Sinhala Politico-Military Establishment allowed barbarism and unimaginable cruelty on a vast scale to be perpetrated on the Tamils in the worst atrocity so far of the 21rst century.
We urge the international community to take into account the unadulterated and demonstrated hatred towards Tamils by the Sinhala Politico-Military Establishment in fashioning the form of remedial justice to the Tamils.
The interests of justice, institutional integrity and international security demand that the Security Council must seize itself with this matter and refer the case to the International Criminal Court. Alternatively, the Human Rights Council in the upcoming session in March must pass a resolution empowering an international investigation of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide and bestow justice to Tamils. In addition, we urge all countries in tolerant of genocide to invoke universal jurisdiction and open its tribunals to preside over civil and criminal prosecutions against the leaders of the Sinhala political military establishment who led during that period of cruel barbarity. Both the 2010 UN Expert Panel Report and the 2012 UN Internal Review Report noted that there is no political and judicial environment for domestic recourse to justice in Sri Lanka. Justice delayed is justice denied.
A statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
